The board seems somewhat active, so I thought this might be a place to ask... I shot off an email nearly two weeks ago, I'd like to get myself a Taboo but need info on getting a factory mod (speaker tap cutoff switch) installed... Anyway I've yet to hear anything back, and was wondering if that sort of lead time on support email is normal, or if there's one person in particular I should be attempting to contact, or what. I know build time on these guys takes some time, and I'd love to get the ball rolling!

Thank you, that really is a pity though as a: I have horrible anxiety when it comes to the phone, and b: my schedule makes it an issue as well (often fortunate, given a). I will... mull over this. Thanks again.

If you have other things to talk about with your order, given the phone anxiety, call Steve. He is as easy a guy to talk to on the phone as you can find. Really! Thoughtful, friendly, easy, and very helpful toward accomplishing your sound goals.

If you just need basic pricing for this mod, as Lon says, call Sarah and ask her to check it out. She will take care of it. Won't take long....sorry this is not easy.

My gf has a severe phobia of dogs such that, to avoid an oncoming dog on a leash, she will and has walked out into busy streets while her gaze is LOCKED on the dog. this is very dangerous for her but she can't help it.

So, I have a very healthy respect for people with phobias and anxieties.

Understand that Steve, Sarah, Devon are just regular people, making world class audio gear out of the detached garage behind their house (see decfest photos). They are way down to earth and willing to help customers any way they can (and very busy as well).

I think you just need to get their attention. My bet is email Sarah explaining your anxiety and request for email support and they'll be all over it. I'm sure she gets tons (or all) of their email... so I don't know how long that takes to hear back. perhaps you should try DeVon. As the wife and mother, she's the "boss".

brh, I also agree with the comments here. While I don't have a phobia about the phone, I do have a very difficult time making personal phone calls during the work day. It's not that I am not allowed; it's just that I am sure to get interrupted and I don't like doing that to the party on the other end of the line.

I have managed to conduct Q&A with Steve via email, but I have gotten accustomed to a snail-mail pace, as if we were exchanging letters. It works. If something is urgent, Sarah is typically very responsive within 24 hours, sometimes quicker. Remember, it's not just that they are small, but they are also successful, and so they are very busy. They are also respectful of who is in queue ahead of you, as they should be, in my view.

What I have also learned is that your commitment speaks volumes. Here's my recommendation: place your order, add your special request in a comment field [probably an extra charge for the switch, so they will need to get your approval], and then send a separate confirmatory/inquiry email to Sarah. Since the Taboo takes several weeks to build anyway, you will have plenty of time to work this out, and your amp build will not be accumulating additional queue time. I did this with both my first Taboo [unintentionally], and with my second, as I worked out whether I wanted V-Caps or beeswax caps.

Despite some peoples continual problems getting through to us by e-mail, I can assure you this is not the common denominator here. A much larger effort is made to answer all e-mails than one would know from reading this forum.

If you don't get a reply in 3 or 4 days then most likely it was nabbed by one of our spam filters. We get so many e-mails (having been online since 1996) that our spam defenses have to start at the server level and then finish on each computer.

Here is our spam filter:

That's the spam I pay big money each month not to see. Then for each mail box we have our own spam filter. Mine currently contains 872. I check it any time someone says I didn't respond to an e-mail and on occasion I find that was the cause. Most of the time however, I think it gets blocked at the server level, and I don't have time to scan 5700 e-mails every week to see who's in there.

My routine is simple. I check my e-mail every time I sit down in front of my computer. I read everything as it comes in. This happens on average 12 times a day and 4 or 5 times on weekends.

If the e-mail is short, and I can answer it without research, I just answer it when I read it. Otherwise I flag it so I can come back to it. I try desperately to answer all flagged e-mails within 3 days.

Here is my inbox. There is presently some 5000 e-mails in there. In addition I have 41 folders containing subject specific e-mail going back for the last 5 years. There are probably tens of thousands of e-mails there.

Here is my sent folder full of e-mails that I have sent as replies to e-mail I have gotten:

Answering an e-mail is not like checking multiple choice answers on a test. More like essay questions. No, exactly like essay questions.

The over 7000 e-mails I have personally answered do not include the rest of my entire staff. Sarah and DeVon can boast twice these numbers.

Besides everything we have to do, I think this shows real effort. I could hire people to waste your time answering e-mails with things like: Let me check with Steve and get back to you... but it would truly be a waste of time.

BOTTOM LINE: If you don't get a reply and don't want to call (I myself am like that when it comes to calling other companies) then just re-send it once or twice. If that doesn't do it, try sending with a different e-mail address. If that doesn't work, then you have my apologies and I can recommend the fine people in this forum as being able to answer a large amount of questions. I check this forum as time allows, sometimes daily, sometimes weekly.

Steve you are appreciated. The Decware clan is coming close to sainthood. I can't even conjure the full weight of the traffic that comes through all channels of communication. And on top of that R&D, building testing and QCing electronics. :o Shipping, billing, warranty claims (very few). Much Love and Respect from me!Hang in there, you do great things!

Decware is a small business that is careful not to outgrow it's shoes and not be able to walk. Although they have sold internationally, they are an American company predominantly, not an international corporation yet.

It's unfortunate that you've had these communication problems. Over the years I've discovered that phone calls are the best way to reach them, and indeed Steve is much more accessible by phone than many other company owners. I can see that can be a problem with many miles and distances in between, but condemning Decware to the sort of status you seem to does not seem fair to me. Sorry they lost your potential business; best of luck!